Perl in a Nutshell

Name

printf

Synopsis

printf [filehandle] format, list

Description

Prints a formatted string of the elements in list to filehandle or, if omitted, the currently selected output filehandle. This is similar to the C library’s printf and fprintf functions, except that the * field width specifier is not supported. The function is exactly equivalent to:

print filehandle sprintf(format, list);

printf and sprintf use the same format syntax, but sprintf only returns a string; it doesn’t print to a filehandle. The format string contains text with embedded field specifiers into which the the elements of list are substituted in order, one per field. Field specifiers follow the form:

%m.nx

A percent sign begins each field, and x is the type of field. The optional m gives the minimum field width for appropriate field types (negative m left-justifies). The .n gives the precision for a specific field type, such as the number of digits after a decimal point for floating-point numbers, the maximum length for a string, and the minimum length for an integer.

Field specifiers (x) may be the following:

Code	Meaning
%	Percent sign
c	Character
d	Decimal integer
e	Exponential format floating-point number
E	Exponential format floating-point number with uppercase E
f	Fixed-point format floating-point number
g	Floating-point number, in either exponential or fixed decimal notation
G	Like g with uppercase E (if applicable)
ld	Long decimal integer
lo	Long octal integer
lu	Long unsigned decimal integer